C.O. Briefing – January 2017

December was busy, as usual, with all of the holiday festivities. We started the month with the Sailor of Year Awards presentation at our meeting on 8 December. That weekend your staff got together for our annual “staff” meeting to celebrate another successful year and to enjoy the fellowship of our group, including spouses and significant others. Santa Claus showed up to greet us and to snap a photo with us. A fun time was had by all. (Pictures on page 4)

Now it is time to move forward in anticipation of another great year. Cindy Macha has already lined up a fine list of speakers for us. Our speaker in January, Captain Marc “Mad Marc” Liebman, USN (Ret), is a retired Naval Aviator (Helo community) and an accomplished author whose books have been very well-received. I have read two of them. I am going to read his third one, “Render Harmless’, before our meeting on 12 January. I have enjoyed talking to Marc at Tailhook on a number of occasions and reading his books/stories. Personally, I look forward to his presentation.

Currently Cindy has “penciled” in Colonel Jason “Woody” Woodworth, USMC, Commanding Officer, MCAS Miramar, for our meeting on 9 February. The last time that we had Woody as a presenter he was C.O. of VMFA-323 “Snakes” and getting ready to deploy aboard the Nimitz. When you read his bio you should be excited to attend that luncheon which will also feature the presentation of SOQ awards for NWSSB and NMC.

Our staff has pretty much stayed the same for many years. Again, I ask you to step up and volunteer to fill one of the staff positions or at least help out one of the staff members. Last year we lost Fran and Paula Pieri, our Membership Officers because they moved out of the area to be closer to their grandchildren; and both George Del Gaudio (SOQ Officer) and Dolores Hardy (Treasurer) had to slow down because of health reasons. Luckily we had competent people available to step up and take those important positions. Of course, the other side of the coin is/was that those folks who stood up were already staff members: Sel Ramsay added Membership to his duties; Bill Thompson picked up SOQ; and Ray LeCompte took over as Treasurer. Bottom line is that we need different/new volunteer help.

Finally, please try to attend our luncheons and continue to send contributions to Hal McDonnel or Ray LeCompte to help support our efforts to honor the Sailors of the Quarter (and Year) at the Weapons Station. We derive our funds from the “Great Guys”, the 50/50 and from direct contributions from you. Remember those days when you were active duty and how nice it was to receive recognition for busting your butt for very little monetary compensation. These awards add a little something to their lives and help them out a little bit financially. All of that is the result of your support of Grampaw Pettibone Squadron. Now, let’s go enjoy 2017! See you on the 12th.